ABSTRACT

Loving and humility are intimately related, and I understand their difference in terms of experiential emphases. I take loving as an immediate and direct opening to another as bearer of value—any other—in the integrity of what it is and toward the fullest realization of what it is with respect to its own sphere. Here the focus is on the other, and is characterized as a movement originating from the beloved as invitational (in one respect), and toward the other as an initiatory movement of the lover (in another). Humility is this openness and dynamic movement, but where the experiential resonance is on how I spontaneously receive myself as what I call “Myself,” that is, as who I am from another and as not self-grounding. Both loving and humility are equally radical, but humility is a spontaneous actualization where the experience is lived in its emphasis on the reception of “Myself,” most fundamentally as beloved (Steinbock 2014). 1